Report from Annual Conference 2009
Twitter Style
by Donna Elium, who confesses to really knowing nothing about how to twitter:
Greenville, NC June 10-13 - - almost 2000 United Methodist clergy and lay delegates and guests gather in the Greenville Convention Center for worship, celebration, learning, encouragement, and business…..glad I bought extra seat cushioning!
Bishop Al Gwinn presides and keeps the body in order and the agenda moving along ...theme for the Conference is "A Future With Hope" with an emphasis on "learning" ...sermons and speeches and committee reports all reference the source of our hope in Jesus Christ ...and repeat often the mission statement of the Conference ..."healthy churches and effective leaders in every place making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world"
...the Bishop reminds us of the challenge in NC ...we are the 10th largest state and the 4th fastest growing state in the USA and 70% of people go to church less than 6 times a year (or don’t go at all), so the mission field is fertile!...we need to offer Christ, not just to enlarge church rolls, but because we have a compelling message to share, a message of hope!...Conference highlights and celebrates churches that are successfully modeling the mission statement…..laments the closing of some churches…..for the learning focus, for the first time Conference offers workshops on various aspects of ministry…Roger and I attend "Reaching and Transforming the Lives of a New Generation" about ministry to/with teenagers and young adults, one of the biggest challenges for today’s church...we are all inspired and challenged by the featured speaker Rev. Adam Hamilton (from 15,000 member United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas)...he teaches sessions on "Leading Beyond the Walls: Lessons in Leadership, Worship, Preaching, and Evangelism"...we think, Hey, Duke Memorial can do these things!...
...Conference also has to do business…not so fun, but important to the mission...two big items of business…voting on amendments to the Methodist Constitution affects the world-wide church and results won’t be finalized until ALL Conferences have voted, sometime next year...other big item is budget (ugh)... the current economic situation means hurting individuals and families, and struggling churches...cuts to the budget must be made...means lengthy debate and close votes...salaries are frozen, programs face decreased budgets…we are told often to "go to the web site" for information, to reduce printing costs...
...Something to look for soon…new media campaign to follow up on "Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors."... new slogan will be "Rethink Church". "What if church was more than a building?" ...we get sneak preview of TV spots ...Conference is long meetings (need that seat cushion) but rewarding and inspiring too, and you learn a lot …wish every Duke Memorial member could attend sometime!
(For the enhanced version of a Conference report, Tim Turkington and I were Duke Memorial’s lay delegates and we would be glad to talk to Sunday School classes, youth groups, or any other group about the 2009 Conference. Just ask us!)
